First mpox vaccine for children approved by WHO – National

The World Health Organization has approved the first MPOX vaccine for children, a decision that experts hope will help make vaccinations more widely available to one of the hardest-hit populations amid ongoing outbreaks of the disease in Congo and elsewhere in Africa.

In a statement late Tuesday, the UN health agency said it had approved Japanese company KM Biologics' MPox vaccine for use in children over one year of age as a single dose.

Earlier this month, the charity Save the Children said cases among children under 18 in Congo had increased by more than 130 percent, noting there are now more than 25,000 suspected cases.

The charity said children are almost four times more likely than adults to die from the latest form of MPox, first discovered in eastern Congo earlier this year. Mpox, related to smallpox, usually causes symptoms such as fever, rash, lesions and fatigue.

“Children are particularly vulnerable to MPox,” Dr. Katia Vieira de Moraes LaCasse of Save The Children said in a statement. “They explore by touch and taste, don't always understand health guidelines and have weaker immune systems than adults.”

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Scientists have previously noted that MPox appears to disproportionately affect children in Congo and Burundi, who account for more than 90% of all MPOX cases in the current outbreak in Africa.

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The WHO had previously approved the Bavarian Nordic-made MPox vaccine for people aged 18 and over, but said the shot could be used in younger populations if doctors thought the benefits outweighed the potential risks, given the lack of data in children and other groups, including pregnant women.

Last week, the WHO said cases of MPOX in the Congolese region, where the new, more contagious form was first identified, appeared to be “plateauing”, even as cases were rising elsewhere, including Burundi and Uganda.

So far, about 50,000 people in Congo have been vaccinated against MPOX with Bavarian Nordic's vaccine.

The WHO said Japan had announced it would donate about three million doses of KM Biologics' shot to Congo. It was not clear whether any of the doses had arrived.

On Friday, the WHO will convene its expert committee to determine whether outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa still constitute a global emergency, a statement the UN agency first made in August.

To date, Africa has reported more than 46,000 suspected cases of MPOX in the current outbreak, including 1,081 deaths.

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